Narrator's POV

Shadow and Maria go to bed after their small exchange of gifts. Maria's sleeping soundly on her side with a smile on her face. She was having a pleasant dream of being back down on Earth, running around a green field, chasing Shadow in a game of tag. And both of them just being happy down on the planet.

Shadow on their other hand was having strange dreams of Earth. Nothing like what Maria was dreaming... He had a look of confusion on his face as slept through the dream...

Shadows POV

I was running on this thick black line on the ground. It had yellow lines going down the sides and it had white dotted lines going down the middle. A road... I think Maria said it was...? It's something the people use down on Earth for traveling from one place to another. But there's no people... and there are no buildings, not even a house or shack.. not even an animal... Just a big open area with small hills...

I try to stop my feet to get a better look around, but my feet won't listen to me. I try to look down at my feet... and I can't... Why won't my body do what I want it to do? I then hear some shouting behind me and I get extremely annoyed. Wait... why am I annoyed?

My head turns to the side and my eyes look back. There was a blue hedgehog with green eyes that was running a few feet behind me. I was surprised to see him so close behind me...

This hedgie wore a blue t-shirt that had the word 'Speedster' on it, blue jeans, and red sneakers with a white strap and gold buckle. Although I was looking at his cloths, that wasn't what had surprised me.

He was following me... a few feet behind me... while I was running, using my skates, making me as fast as sound...

"C'mon Shads!! Don't be such a emo and come!!" he said with a smirk on his face.

Before I had time to think about what he said, my mouth had replied for me.

"I'm not going to your stupid get together hedgehog!! Now stop bothering me, Faker!!"

'Faker? Is that his name? What kind of person would name their child that...?' I thought.

'Faker' gave a fake pout that turned into a thoughtful look. My head turned forward again as I ran faster creating a 'boom' sound behind me when I did so. I heard another 'boom' behind me and I get annoyed again. Faker ran up beside me a smirk, his head faced to look at me.

"How 'bout a race? If I win you go. If you win, you do what you want. Deal?" he said.

I gave a annoyed sigh and said, "Where to?"

His smirk turned into a full out smile of triumph smile. "To the other side of the city."

With that he sped off. I was getting ready to follow suit until a voice called me and I stopped in my tracks looking around for the origin of the voice.

"Shadow" it sounded like a whispered yell.

"Wha? Maria?" I said.

"Shadow" it said more loudly.

I stopped running and looked around more frantically for where it came from. The voice kept yelling my name getting louder each time. I began to panic and look around more. The voice had gotten so loud that I held my head and squeezed my eyes shut to block out the sound.

"SHADOW!!"